The Arts Undergraduate Theatre Society presents CABARET at the McGill, Moyse Hall. January 14 to 23. Director Julian Silverman, musical direction Chris Barillaro, producer Meg Annand. A very large ensemble of 19 performers and a production team of 12 bring this equally very large musical to the McGill stage. A daunting task for any production company to pull together on a shoestring budget with equally limited time constraints and was perhaps a somewhat ambitious project for AUTS to undertake.
This was my second time seeing a rendition of this piece in less than two months; The previous was the 'full play version' mounted by the graduating class of NTS, see review below. This is the first time I've seen the 'full musical version' staged. It left me wondering what it would be like to see it done 'professionally'; This is not a good thing. I never got the 'je ne sais quoi' gut 'emotional' feeling that musical theatre fans get when experiencing the joy of musical theatre on stage. Admittedly I'm most familiar with the material of the Oscar winning film version and that sound track; -I was hopeful to be equally entertained, but the 'vilkomen en bienvenue' on this one fell somewhat emotionally if not musically flat.
Some noteworthy performances are: Renee Hodgins (Sally Bowles), who played Little Sally in "Urinetown", is adequate in this role but never quite hits the big notes at the big moments; These characters are some really big shoes to fill. Phae Nowak (Fraulin Schneider) is very convincing and virtually flawless in her portrayal of this popular role. Cayleigh Eckhardt (the tenant) delivers a powerhouse solo number stealing the scene away from the rest of the ensemble. Surprisingly the male leads and chorus were all vocally quite strong, a real relief in a town not noted for it's male triple threats. The only two notable critiques were for: Nicholas Allen (Emcee) who although perfectly cast in the role giving a very courageous performance, there were a few moments where the vocals were somewhat forced and over the top; Although so is this character, sometimes a little constraint and a "less is more" approach are the way to go. And to Anthime Miller (Herr Schultz) who gives us a moving performance, yet vocally there were a few moments that were somewhat muffled and lacking precision on the diction. The ensembles performances were over all quite good with some great moments delivered by the cast of students who herald from a range of departments: music, drama, and literature.
Although most of the flaws can probably be attributed to a lack of rehearsal time and limited resources and overall experience, some elements are still worth noting. Costuming was somewhat inconsistent with elements that fluctuated from a variety of decades. The staging was all too often placed up stage, distancing a lot of the action from the audience rather than creating opportunities for more intimate moments in this very large space. Details to blocking was sometimes awkward to clumsy with some moments in desperate need of cleaning up. And far too many transitions that were overwhelming for the cast and distracting to the audience. Fortunately, thanks to the musical direction of Chris Barillero, the orchestrations of the band were excellent and the music was impeccably pure delight.
Having first discovered this company in 2008 with their production of "Urinetown", which made my top ten list that year, then last year's joyous production of "Hair", this production of Cabaret ranks as my least favorite of the three.CABARET at the McGill, Moyse Hall. January 14 to 23. www.auts-cabaret2010.blogspot.com
This was my second time seeing a rendition of this piece in less than two months; The previous was the 'full play version' mounted by the graduating class of NTS, see review below. This is the first time I've seen the 'full musical version' staged. It left me wondering what it would be like to see it done 'professionally'; This is not a good thing. I never got the 'je ne sais quoi' gut 'emotional' feeling that musical theatre fans get when experiencing the joy of musical theatre on stage. Admittedly I'm most familiar with the material of the Oscar winning film version and that sound track; -I was hopeful to be equally entertained, but the 'vilkomen en bienvenue' on this one fell somewhat emotionally if not musically flat.
Some noteworthy performances are: Renee Hodgins (Sally Bowles), who played Little Sally in "Urinetown", is adequate in this role but never quite hits the big notes at the big moments; These characters are some really big shoes to fill. Phae Nowak (Fraulin Schneider) is very convincing and virtually flawless in her portrayal of this popular role. Cayleigh Eckhardt (the tenant) delivers a powerhouse solo number stealing the scene away from the rest of the ensemble. Surprisingly the male leads and chorus were all vocally quite strong, a real relief in a town not noted for it's male triple threats. The only two notable critiques were for: Nicholas Allen (Emcee) who although perfectly cast in the role giving a very courageous performance, there were a few moments where the vocals were somewhat forced and over the top; Although so is this character, sometimes a little constraint and a "less is more" approach are the way to go. And to Anthime Miller (Herr Schultz) who gives us a moving performance, yet vocally there were a few moments that were somewhat muffled and lacking precision on the diction. The ensembles performances were over all quite good with some great moments delivered by the cast of students who herald from a range of departments: music, drama, and literature.
Although most of the flaws can probably be attributed to a lack of rehearsal time and limited resources and overall experience, some elements are still worth noting. Costuming was somewhat inconsistent with elements that fluctuated from a variety of decades. The staging was all too often placed up stage, distancing a lot of the action from the audience rather than creating opportunities for more intimate moments in this very large space. Details to blocking was sometimes awkward to clumsy with some moments in desperate need of cleaning up. And far too many transitions that were overwhelming for the cast and distracting to the audience. Fortunately, thanks to the musical direction of Chris Barillero, the orchestrations of the band were excellent and the music was impeccably pure delight.
Having first discovered this company in 2008 with their production of "Urinetown", which made my top ten list that year, then last year's joyous production of "Hair", this production of Cabaret ranks as my least favorite of the three.CABARET at the McGill, Moyse Hall. January 14 to 23. www.auts-cabaret2010.blogspot.com
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